North Italia will plant its flag in downtown Walnut Creek, with a March 25 opening scheduled. The 8,500-square-foot dining room and alfresco bar will offer seating for 200. For starters, brunch every weekend and lunch every weekday, with hours from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., at which point the dinner menu kicks in.
Flip the script on the usual romantic dinner obligation at Tanzie's, where spicy Thai lava eggs bring the heat, but brunch hours keep it casual. For a dash of fancy, book a reservation for their prix fixe option. For another just-another-day-date option, grab a beer and some seafood comfort food at Sailing Goat. The Richmond hotspot has live music, great views, and a crowd-pleasing menu for day and night noshing, plus a walk-in only policy ideal for last-minute decision makers. Test the romance waters by timing your visit to the sunset. If there's a wait for a table, you can also check out the collection of former Burning Man art pieces at the Point San Pablo Harbor.
The tasting menu format has gone in and out of fashion at different times in our recent food culture, but it is very much alive and well around San Francisco in 2025. Restaurants where your only option is a single, often fairly expensive fixed-price tasting menu remain somewhat prevalent around the Bay Area, where there are plenty of well-off people who seek out such experiences for more than just special occasions.
As part of the New York Times' food section's initiative to become more national in its scope, we have a full rave review of the Michelin three-starred Atelier Crenn, and fresh accolades for Verjus and Oakland's Sun Moon Studio. Also, the Food & Wine Best New Chefs list has dropped, and it includes an Oakland chef. Call it part of the "boom loop" actually, please don't but San Francisco and the Bay Area are inching back into the national food conversation after several years in which we've been largely ignored.